the 50th post

Blogger just informed me that this post brings the grand tally of posts up to 50 on this blog. There should be a cake or confetti or a grand prize. Unfortunately, I have none of those things. What I do have is pictures of Charlie. Just as good, right?

This picture was taken the day after Charlie's due date. A week after his due date, he weighed in at 6lbs 8oz.

"What about some pictures of Lucy," you ask. Well, Lucy has taken an intense fascination with seeing herself on the camera. Whenever I get it out, she runs towards it with her hand outstretched, so unless you want to see 10 pictures of her blurry hand, this is all I've got: blowing bubbles while sitting on the potty.

We've been very busy here lately. Potty-training, spring-cleaning, gardening and all kinds of good things. It's a great season of life right now.

a "grand" week (part 1)

This past week, my mom came to visit us, and what a wonderful week it was. Besides all of the help she gave us in this transition time, we also just had some very fun days. Let me tell ya about them.

First, there was the strawberry picking, which you've already seen. The strawberries, by the way, turned into strawberry banana cake, some delicious non-dairy ice cream, and little treats in our breakfast Cheerios.

As most two year olds, Lucy has a fondness for all things silly. She has been carrying this little purse around for a few weeks and suddenly discovered that it fits perfectly on her head. She ran around saying, "Box on head!" and giggling. It was a great way to greet Grandma.

Grandma loved being able to finally hold sweet Charlie.

A trip to our church's playground:

Another humorous hands-near-face picture of Charlie.

We took Grandma to the local children's library, which she loved so much she began talking about starting one in St. Louis just like it!

A bath for Charlie in our make-shift bath tub.

Playing in our backyard.

Have I mentioned our garden? I don't think so. This year, we decided to be adventurous and fulfill a dream of ours all at once: we planted our first garden together. We rented a plot of land in our county's community garden and now we are watching our tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, corn, onions, basil, marigolds, daisies and sunflowers grow (well, we look forward to watching them growing... we just planted them a couple weeks ago).

Here, my friends, is our corn (and weeds).

Later in the week, we went to the botanical gardens on a lovely day. We mostly spent our time in the butterfly exhibit, but first, a picture of Lucy, Charlie and me.

Lucy alternated between being scared of the butterflies,

and excitedly running through the exhibit singing, "Wee-o, wee-o, wee-o!"

Look very closely at Lucy's right shoulder (our left).

But mostly, we just bummed around, chatted, read books to Lucy, and held Charlie.

Now, look back at that first picture of Charlie in this post and tell me the boy hasn't grown... he seems to have found his appetite this week in a whole new way. Fine by me!

This post is entitled part 1, because Lucy's other "grands" are coming in a couple weeks. We are very much looking forward to some Stanley fun!

Strawberry picking

On Monday, we decided to enjoy the holiday by taking a little adventure to the pick-your-own farm for some strawberries. Just as with blackberries last year, it was delightful. Strawberries picked right off the vine and warm in the mid-day May sun was a totally new way to eat them. My mom flew in a couple days before, and it was so nice to have her with us (i.e. she did all the work picking strawberries while we played man-to-man defense with Lucy and Charlie). And with that, I will just let you enjoy the pictures.

Lucy & Charlie

Well, we've had three wonderful weeks with our new little guy. He's very determined and steady, just eating, sleeping, pooping and growing like it's no big deal. I think we keep expecting him to somehow have problems because he was early and such a little guy, but he is just trucking along, about as sturdy as a sweet little newborn can be.

I must say, one of the best parts about the last three weeks has been seeing Lucy and Charlie interact (okay, it's mostly one sided at the moment). Judging from Lucy's personality and age, we honestly expecting a lot of this:

and um, this:

Yes, we fully expected her to be furious at this new little person taking over her mother's arms, lap and attention. But instead, we have been miraculously surprised by a lot of this:

and this (a kiss. It's so off center because he is sitting on my lap as I take the picture):

and this (a gift? It's upside down because I cannot figure out how to turn it, but that is a sock that Lucy very lovingly and carefully placed on top of Charlie):

and just in general, a lot of this:

I could keep going, but let that be enough to show that things are actually going quite well in the sibling realm. Lucy is very fond of her little brother: snuggling him, hugging him, singing his name. Whenever I put him down in a bouncy seat, she'll rush to him with her arms outstretched saying, "Oh, come here!" She loves pointing out all of his all of his facial features, noting if they are open, if he is sleeping, if he is "squeaking," if he is "having milk," etc. Several times, she has gotten quite upset if I am not holding him (James or one of our lovely visitors was holding him). She would look at me and insist, "Momma hold you bebe Charlie!" She will even start sing-songing "Cha-lee so-kay" (Charlie it's okay) if he starts crying. She is indeed a doting big sister, and it makes us smile quite a bit.

Here are some rare hat-off pictures of Charlie (we're advised to keep a hat on at all times until at least his due date, which is still a week away).

Until recently, he only fit preemie clothes, but now he is sporting some very baggy newborn clothes.

Charlie likes to keep his hands around his face, and one day he fell asleep like this. We'll try to be a little more quiet in the future.

And last, our first family picture, which a visitor took for us. Please excuse the unfortunate and humorous placement of the picture above James' head.